A society wedding took place in Salcombe on Saturday (May 13) when CNN correspondent Anna Stewart married New Zealand former officer in the Parachute Regiment David Bairstow, who now works in the City of London.

Anna’s parents Sir Simon and Lady Cathy Stewart live in the town and Anna has been a regular visitor since she was a baby.

Anna said: “For me Salcombe is very important. It’s a magical place and on Saturday the sun shone and the water was turquoise. “There were four generations at the wedding and we had 25 page boys and bridesmaids who were treated to a trip out on the water by Steve and the East Portlemouth Ferry.”

There were many people she wanted to thank including Twig of Salcombe Flowers, Father Daniel at Holy Trinity Church, The Salcombe Larks, Dave Watts Photography, Explosures Photography who were responsible for the picture on page 5 of last week’s paper, Poppy Graham who is an award-winning child singer and Lisa who is Anna’s hair and make-up artist from CNN who came down especially, along with a number of anchors from the news channel. On the morning of the wedding the groom and his friends went spear fishing and the bride’s party did some stand-up paddle boarding.

David’s former army colleagues formed an arch of sabres for the newlyweds to walk through.

Lady Stewart said: “David’s meticulous military planning meant that everyone knew where they had to be and when. Everything was set out on spreadsheets and it all came together perfectly.”

“The night before the wedding, David and his friends stayed at Castle Point and Anna stayed with us to make sure they didn’t see each other.”

A significant number of people travelled over from New Zealand for the big day.

The couple are now enjoying their honeymoon in Kefalonia in Greece.